Reader’s links for Jan 6 – 2016

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

89 Replies to “Reader’s links for Jan 6 – 2016”

  1. China escalates emergency stock market intervention
    Authorities buy shares, inject liquidity and extend selling ban in the wake of renewed stock turmoil

    Chinese authorities have escalated their market intervention in a bid to prop up stocks after $590bn was wiped off shares on Monday.

    Beijing’s state-owned financial institutions hoovered up shares, and regulators extended a selling ban on major companies, to quell investor fears after a tumultuous start to 2016 trading.

    The main Shanghai Composite index of shares fell just 0.3pc on Tuesday, while the smaller Shenzen Composite declined less than 2pc, after bleeding 8.2pc at the start of new year trading.

    The People’s Bank of China also pumped in 130bn yuan ($20bn) into the financial system, its largest single injection of liquidity since September.

    The measures came after Chinese stocks saw the worst ever start to the year, with shares in the blue-chip CSI300 falling by 7pc on Monday. This triggered an automatic “circuit breaker” mechanism, where trading was halted in a bid to dampen volatility.

    • The truth behind China’s manipulated economic numbers

    On Tuesday, the CSI300 closed the day up by 0.3pc having fallen as much as 2pc during early morning trading.

    China’s securities regulator is also said to have extended a selling ban on major listed companies for investors who hold more than 5pc of a listed stock. The restriction was first introduced at the height of the country’s market turmoil last summer and was set to expire this week.

  2. People have been concentrating on the Middle East and the war and ignoring the Far East with the Chinese land grabs and the way their economy is tanking. This collapse of the Chinese economic collapse is rocking the worlds economy and is as big a danger to the world as the Islamic war of conquest.

  3. North Korea says it has the ‘H-bomb of justice’ after nuclear test

    North Korea tested a hydrogen nuclear bomb on Wednesday, state news agency KCNA reported, marking the politically isolated country’s first nuclear test in three years, a move that was condemned by the U.S., Britain and Japan, among others.

    The report on the KCNA website came within hours of reports from various agencies that a large earthquake had been detected near a known North Korean nuclear test site.

    According to KCNA, North Korea tested a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear bomb “in the most perfect manner,” putting it in possession of hydrogen bomb capability, which it described as “the most powerful nuclear deterrent.”

    • Think back a few years, Iran and North Korea were doing things to keep our attention bouncing between the near east and the far east. Now that North Korea is acting to draw our attention once more we need to take a hard look at Iran and see if there is something there that they don’t want us to pay attention to. The missiles and the vry real possibility of a war between Saudi and Iran is the only thing I see but there may be other things those two threats are hiding.

  4. Former U.S. attorney: Clinton could face criminal indictment

    A former U.S. attorney thinks Hillary Clinton could face a criminal indictment from the FBI within the next 60 days.

    Joe DiGenova, a Republican U.S. attorney appointed by President Reagan, said Clinton’s “biggest problem right now” is the open FBI investigation into the contents of her private emails.

    “They have reached a critical mass in their investigation of the secretary and all of her senior staff,” DiGenova said Tuesday on the “Laura Ingraham Show” radio program. “And, it’s going to come to a head, I would suggest, in the next 60 days.”

    FBI Director James Comey has refused to answer questions about when his agents will wrap up a months-long probe into whether Clinton and her staff mishandled classified information on an unsecured network.

    • Don’t hold your breath waiting for this, we all know liberal Democrats are above the law.

  5. “Military age men” at San Diego’s southern border
    0
    “Credible threat” posed by unknown Afghans and Pakistanis

    By Marty Graham, Jan. 5, 2016

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    Among the several dozen Pakistani and Afghan men who have entered the U.S. illegally, coming into San Diego from Tijuana, two were found to have ties to terrorist groups, according to a letter sent by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter to the Department of Homeland Security.

    Muhammad Azeem and Muktar Ahmad, both in their 20s, surrendered to U.S. Border Patrol agents in September, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One was listed on the Terrorist Screening Database for “associations with a known or suspected terrorist. The other was a positive match for derogatory information in an alternative database,” according to Hunter’s letter.

    Azeem and Ahmad are among dozens of men — described by Border Patrol agents as “military age and carrying U.S. cash” who began entering the U.S. through a Tijuana-based human-smuggling pipeline in September.

    Pakistanis and Afghans crossing the border illegally in the San Diego sector are pretty unusual, according to Border Patrol statistics. In 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained fewer than 400 Pakistanis throughout the entire United States — at the ports of entry, airports, and along the border between ports.

    • Surely there are disabled veterans who have experienced life in these regions. I bet they’d love to help these tragic, helpless migrants.

      • And not so disabled vets, that region is about one or two shots away from becoming war zones.

        The Texas Ranger boats on the Rio Grande are armed and armored much like the Swift Boats in Nam, Texas is playing hard ball but could use some hard ball backup from the Feds.

      • Remember me telling you about how in the 1980s rich Europeans use to pay to go to Afghanistan to hunt the most dangerous game? If they weren’t afraid of the legal ramifications a lot of vets and American hunters would spend their vacations down south on hunting trips.

  6. Social Security: Surge of children named Mohammed up 10,000%

    The number of U.S. newborns named “Mohammed” has jumped 100-fold since 1964, one way of determining the growth of second and third generation Muslims, according to a leading immigration watchdog.

    Based on Social Security Administration baby name figures, there were only 29 babies born with one of the spellings of Mohammed in 1964. That has surged to 2,931.

    The Center for Immigration Studies used the statistics to determine the growth of the Muslim community, a statistic the federal government doesn’t chart.

    “Given the fact that some U.S.- or European-born Muslim terrorists (such as Syed Farook in San Bernardino) have been menacing Western societies, are there any statistics on the growth of the second-generation Muslim populations?” blogged CIS Fellow David North.

  7. Could we soon ‘speak’ telepathically? Mind-reading computer deciphers words from brainwaves BEFORE they are spoken

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3386875/Could-soon-speak-telepathically-Mind-reading-computer-deciphers-words-brainwaves-spoken.html#ixzz3wTawgTj0
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    A ‘mind-reading’ device that can decipher words from brainwaves without them being spoken has been developed by Japanese scientists, raising the prospect of ‘telepathic’ communication.

    Researchers have found the electrical activity in the brain is the same when words are spoken and when they are left unsaid.

    By looking for the distinct wave forms produced before speaking, the team was able to identify words such as ‘goo’, ‘scissors’ and ‘par’ when spoken in Japanese.
    Researchers from Japan used technology that measures the electrical activity of the brain to decipher brainwaves that occur before someone speaks (stock picture). They found distinct brainwaves were formed before syllables were spoken
    +3

    Researchers from Japan used technology that measures the electrical activity of the brain to decipher brainwaves that occur before someone speaks (stock picture). They found distinct brainwaves were formed before syllables were spoken

    The scientists behind the technology said they can identify brain waves associated with syllables or letters of the Japanese alphabet, meaning it may be possible to decode entire words and sentences without the need for any of them being physically spoken.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3386875/Could-soon-speak-telepathically-Mind-reading-computer-deciphers-words-brainwaves-spoken.html#ixzz3wTb3zFHE
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

  8. Exclusive: Inside IS Terror Weapons Lab

    Experts describe the footage obtained by Sky News of a “jihadi technical college” as an intelligence gold mine.

    Terror group Islamic State is employing scientists and weapons experts to train jihadists to carry out sophisticated “spectacular” attacks in Europe, while also modifying weapons systems capable of targeting passenger jets and military aircraft.

    :: IS Killings Video: Voice Likely To Be Rumaysah

    From a “jihadi university” in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the scientists have stunned western weapons experts by producing a homemade thermal battery for surface-to-air missiles.

    It had been regarded as a virtually impossible feat for terror groups working without a military infrastructure.

    But footage exclusively obtained by Sky News shows that IS can now recommission thousands of missiles assumed by western governments to have been redundant through old age.

    http://news.sky.com/story/1617197/exclusive-inside-is-terror-weapons-lab

  9. Are Climate Skeptics Too ‘Mentally Ill’ to Buy Guns Under Obama’s New Rules?

    Today, Pres. Obama announced new executive orders on gun control designed to keep “mentally ill” people from buying guns – but, will they be used to prevent climate skeptics from buying firearms?

    Under Obama’s new rules, doctors can now report people deemed “mentally ill” to the FBI so they can be denied gun licenses.

    As the official White House fact sheet on the new gun control regulations states (emphasis added):

    “Current law prohibits individuals from buying a gun if, because of a mental health issue, they are either a danger to themselves or others or are unable to manage their own affairs. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to ensure that appropriate information in its records is reported to NICS.”

    If, as Pres. Obama has repeatedly claimed, climate change is a greater threat than terrorism, then aren’t people who deny the climate threat “a danger to themselves or others” and unfit to own guns?

    The idea that climate skeptics are mentally ill is nothing new:

    Oregon-based professor of “sociology and environmental studies” Kari Norgaard has declared climate skepticism a mental illness that must be “treated.”

    Psychology Today published an article listing three warning signs that you are in “climate change denial”:

    “You think climate change is bad, but not that bad.”
    “You don’t have an emotional reaction to climate change.”
    “You aren’t getting political.”

    Thus, if you don’t think the climate threat is great enough, or you’re not furious about it, or you’re not politically active in the climate fight, then you’ve got mental issues.

    http://www.mrctv.org/blog/are-climate-skeptics-too-mentally-ill-buy-guns-under-obama-s-new-rules

  10. No drop in asylum seekers reaching Germany, Berlin says

    BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Germany has seen no drop in the number of people arriving and seeking asylum despite EU efforts to confront a migration crisis, the deputy interior minister said on Wednesday, blaming a lack of controls at Europe’s borders.

    More than a million people fleeing the Middle East and Africa arrived in Europe in 2015. Denmark began 2016 by imposing checks on its border this week, prompting the EU to call Germany, Denmark and Sweden to a meeting in Brussels.

    Germany has been one of the most seriously affected EU member states. Sources in Berlin said on Wednesday the country registered some 1.09 million asylum seekers last year.

    “We had an average influx of 3,200 refugees per day arriving in Germany, and the numbers are not declining in the last days,” Ole Schroeder, the deputy German minister, told a briefing in Brussels. “Our problem at the moment in Europe is that we do not have a functioning border control system, especially at the Greece-Turkey border,” Schroeder said.

    The European Union is counting on Turkey to help reduce the number of migrants entering the bloc following a deal between Brussels and Ankara late last year for Turkey to absorb more people fleeing Syria’s civil war.

    Schroeder was speaking after meeting with EU migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos and with Danish and Swedish officials to discuss temporary border controls after Denmark implemented spot checks on its border, raising new concerns about the durability of the EU’s passport-free Schengen area.

    http://www.oann.com/no-drop-in-asylum-seekers-reaching-germany-berlin-says/

  11. Islamic State threatens to destroy Saudi prisons after executions

    RIYADH (Reuters) – Islamic State threatened to destroy Saudi Arabian prisons holding jihadists after Riyadh’s execution of 47 people including 43 convicted al Qaeda militants.

    The militant group, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in the kingdom and stepped up operations in neighboring Yemen, singled out the al-Ha’ir and Tarfiya prisons where many al Qaeda and Islamic State supporters have been detained.

    “The Islamic State always seeks to free prisoners, but we calculate that the ending of the issues of prisoners will not happen except with the eradication of the rule of tyrants, and then destroying their prisons and razing them to the ground,” it said in an article posted online on Tuesday.

    An Islamic State supporter killed himself in a car bomb at a checkpoint outside Ha’ir prison near Riyadh in July.

    While Islamic State and al Qaeda are rivals who have condemned each other on ideological grounds, they are both united in enmity towards Saudi Arabia, which has declared them terrorist groups and locked up thousands of their supporters.

    http://www.oann.com/islamic-state-threatens-to-destroy-saudi-prisons-after-executions/

  12. France: Clashes erupt between police and refugees in Calais

    Clashes erupted between police and a group of around 300 refugees and migrants in Calais during the early hours of Wednesday morning.

    • France: Anti-refugee activists patrol ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais

      Members of the anti-refugee group ‘Les Calaisiens en Colere’ (The Angry Calaisiens) patrolled the area surrounding the Calais migrant camp, commonly known as ‘the Jungle,’ in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

  13. ‘We stand with Saudi Arabia’ – Mahmoud Abbas

    “We have warned people many, many times of what is happening on Palestinian land. Watch out, neighbours, watch out world, the conflict is turning into a religious conflict, and this is a very dangerous thing which will not be containable later on. Stay away from al-Aqsa, stay away from the holy locations.”

    “I want you to be careful, this is a whole nation. We do not want the nation to feel forced, we do not want for it to despair. I do not want for our young men to feel like there is no way out, and that there is no other solution. Beware of this!”

    “Because we have always been against radicalism, against violence, against terrorism. The proof of this is when our Saudi brothers called for an anti-terror coalition, we were the first to get on board. We stand with them. We stand by stopping terrorism. And by the way, we stand with Saudi Arabia. We stand with Saudi Arabia in everything it did, because we think what Saudi Arabia did is the right thing, and thus we stand with it. No shame in this, we stand with Saudi Arabia.”

    “This is why the solution we are offering is essentially what will end radicalism.”

  14. Around 200 Eritreans protest against forced ID in Lampedusa

    (ANSA) – Lampedusa, January 5 – About 200 Eritrean migrants who reached the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa on December 24 staged a protest on Tuesday against the obligation to provide digital fingerprint identification.
    The European Commission has urged Italy to ensure that migrants’ fingerprints are taken, by force if necessary, and to hold anyone who resists attempts at identification.
    Eritreans are among the migrants most likely to refuse to be identified upon arrival, forensic police chief Daniela Stradiotto told a parliamentary commission in September last year. The protesting Eritreans marched on Tuesday from a Lampedusa reception centre to a central square where police officers are monitoring the rally.
    EU regulation requires immigrants’ asylum applications to be handled by the country they first reach. But many migrants do not wish to stay in Italy, rather they are hoping to reach countries such as Germany, Sweden and Britain.

    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2016/01/05/around-200-eritreans-protest-against-forced-id-in-lampedusa_dca18ce8-364f-4f36-b221-e9bb32683cde.html

  15. Winter weather for refugees at Slovenian-Austrian border

    Refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan walk through snowy conditions across the Slovenian-Austrian border, but others from non-conflict areas are denied entry.

    • BREITBART – Major Anti-Islamisation Protest Planned Following Mass Migrant Rape Scandal

      A heavy police presence met a small, spontaneous protest in Cologne last night following the mass sex assault against German women by migrant males on New Year’s Eve.

      Locals are standing up against the loss of their city to migrant gangs, and the politicians who apparently treat citizens with contempt for opposing the change.

      German counter migration movement the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) have called a mass protest for this Saturday afternoon at the square outside the railway station where the attacks happened.

      Announced within the past few hours, the march is likely to attract thousands, and not just of long-standing PEGIDA members, but also of ordinary Germans and the citizens of Cologne.

      For many, the realisation that the German mainstream media and government have been apparently colluding in the cover-up of migrant sexual violence has provided a sudden and rude political awakening.[…]

      http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/06/pegida-demonstration-called-follow-spontaneous-protest-migrant-rape-cologne/

      ========================================================
      BREITBART – German State Broadcaster ‘Sorry’ For Slow Reporting On Cologne Sex Assaults

      BERLIN (AFP) – German public broadcaster ZDF has apologised for delays in reporting on a wave of sexual assaults blamed on men of Arab appearance amid accusations Wednesday of media self-censorship of the inflammatory issue.

      The rash of attacks and thefts in a New Year’s Eve crowd in the western city of Cologne was only widely covered by national media early this week, after police had initially reported no major incidents.

      News editors of ZDF’s flagship “heute” (today) evening news programme apologised on social media for not reporting on the incidents at least in its Monday evening bulletin, four days after the attacks.

      “The news situation was clear enough. It was a mistake of the 7pm ‘heute’ show not to at least report the incidents,” wrote deputy chief editor Elmar Thevessen on the show’s Facebook page.

      Editors had decided to postpone the news segment to Tuesday, the day Cologne’s city hall and police held a crisis meeting on the attacks, he wrote, admitting this was “a clear misjudgement”.

      As the assaults have come to dominate German mainstream media, more women have come forward in Cologne and other cities about being groped and attacked on New Year’s Eve.

      The number of criminal complaints in Cologne topped 100 by Wednesday.

      On social media, furious commentators have blamed the attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and its welcome to asylum seekers, 1.1 million of whom arrived last year.

      The populist Alternative for Germany party seized on the attacks as “the appalling consequences of catastrophic asylum and migration policies”.

      A media industry website said that the ugly incidents — and the sluggish official and media response — played into the hands of groups such as the PEGIDA street movement, which claims Germany’s politicians and media are colluding to mislead the public about immigration policy.

      “Despite the world’s most expensive public broadcaster, countless social media reactions and online newsrooms … it took four long days before national media comprehensively reported on the incidents,” said a commentary on the Meedia service.

      “The initial slowness is now being used in some circles to back their claims about the ‘lying press’.”

      http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/06/german-state-broadcaster-sorry-for-slow-reporting-on-cologne-sex-assaults/

    • the guardian – Cologne attacks: mayor lambasted for telling women to keep men at arm’s length

      […]The German public broadcaster, ZDF, on Wednesday apologised for delays in reporting on the wave of sexual assaults and deciding to postpone a news segment until Tuesday. “The news situation was clear enough. It was a mistake of the 7pm ‘heute’ show not to at least report the incidents,” wrote deputy chief editor Elmar Thevessen on the show’s Facebook page.

      As the assaults have come to dominate German mainstream media, more women have come forward in Cologne and other cities about being groped and attacked on New Year’s Eve.

      The number of criminal complaints in Cologne topped 100 by Wednesday.

      Next month, Cologne will celebrate carnival season, when thousands go on to the streets. The police, who have admitted major errors in the way they managed the incidents, say they will modify the way they oversee the forthcoming celebrations, including introducing more mobile video cameras.

      video on the page :

      http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/cologne-attacks-mayor-women-keep-men-arms-length-germany

  16. Remember When Bill Clinton Ended the Nuclear Threat from North Korea?
    “It’s a crucial step toward drawing North Korea into the global community.”

    Now that North Korea continues, very predictably, to escalate its nuclear program (just as Iran will), let’s jump into our time machines and remember how Bill Clinton solved the Nork nukes.

    Good afternoon. I am pleased that the United States and North Korea yesterday reached agreement on the text of a framework document on North Korea’s nuclear program. This agreement will help to achieve a longstanding and vital American objective: an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula.

    This agreement is good for the United States, good for our allies, and good for the safety of the entire world. It reduces the danger of the threat of nuclear spreading in the region. It’s a crucial step toward drawing North Korea into the global community.

    Pretty much the same speech Obama gave on Iran. So you, and anyone who can count to four, knows how that one is going to end.

    Today all Americans should know that as a result of this achievement on Korea, our Nation will be safer and the future of our people more secure.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/261366/remember-when-bill-clinton-ended-nuclear-threat-daniel-greenfield

    https://youtu.be/6TcbU5jAavw

  17. Protecting Muslims From Trump
    Or does Trump need protecting from Muslims?
    January 6, 2016

    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.

    After an Islamic terror attack, Americans are told that they’re foolish and fearful to worry about the type of Islamic terrorism that just filled a local morgue with bodies. Instead of focusing on the families of the dead, the media coverage sharply pivots to a million stories about Muslims who claim to be terrified of a “backlash” from Americans and must be protected from the threat of this imaginary backlash.

    When Americans worry about being murdered by the Islamic terrorist next door, they are accused of “giving in to fear”, but when Muslims claim that they’re terrorized by the occasional dirty look, that’s not only a legitimate fear, but actually rises to the level of a national crisis.

    Never mind the American corpses, let’s focus on the Muslim hurt feelings.

    After Trump suggested that maybe we shouldn’t be bringing tens of thousands of Syrians to this country when 13% of them poll as ISIS supporters (that’s 1,300 for each batch of 10,000 Syrians), Muslims Brotherhood front groups and their media allies swiftly began their victimhood theater.

    Donald J. Trump has killed zero Americans or even Muslims in terrorist attacks. Meanwhile Muslims have killed 9,983 Americans.

    Determining whether Trump or Muslims are the bigger threat is a matter of simple math.

    But the media dismisses the threat of Islamic terrorism and urges the country to panic over Trump. And it never questions the credibility of the Muslims who whine that they need protection from Trump.

    On ABC News, CAIR boss Nihad Awad complained that Trump was fueling anti-Muslim sentiment. No one at ABC asked him about the time he said, “I am in support of the Hamas movement”.

    Nihad Awad openly supported Islamic terrorism and made anti-Semitic remarks. And yet the media acted as if the pro-terrorist activist needed protection from Trump, when it’s Americans who need protection from Awad and his cronies.

  18. Obama’s Immigration Policies: Instrumentalities of Change
    Displacement of American workers, suppression of wages and importation of new voters.
    January 6, 2016
    Michael Cutler

    Prior to World War II the U.S. Department of Labor was charged with enforcing and administering our immigration laws. It was understood that flooding the U.S. labor pool with foreign workers would force American workers to compete with those foreign workers who would be willing to work for much lower wages. This would depress wages and cost many Americans their jobs.

    The enforcement of our immigration laws played an important role in creating America’s unusually large and upwardly mobile middle class, which in turn, gave rise to “The American Dream.”

    The authority for the enforcement and administration of our immigration laws was shifted to the Department of Justice during the Second World War when concerns shifted to enemy spies and saboteurs entering the United States.

    For our enemies, going behind the “enemy lines” meant the borders of the United States whether they existed along our northern or southern borders, along our tens of thousands of miles of meandering coastline or even by entering the United States through international airports.

    In the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 the responsibility for the enforcement of our immigration laws was shifted from the Department of Justice to the newly created Department of Homeland Security- once again reaffirming the nexus between immigration and national security. However, under DHS the enforcement of our immigration laws was hobbled by splitting the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) into several unwieldy components and blending those components with other agencies.

    For the most part, two of these components, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) were headed up by managers who primarily had been part of the former U.S. Customs Service and had little or no experience in enforcing immigration laws. Consequently they did not understand just how effective immigration law enforcement can be to protect America and Americans from foreign criminal organizations and international terrorist organizations.

  19. 5 facts about Sunnis and Shiites that helps make sense of the Saudi-Iran crisis

    image: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/images/cleardot.gif
    Adam Taylor
    By Adam Taylor

    Published Jan. 6, 2016

    The execution of Shiite cleric Nimr Baqr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia has sparked a furor in the Middle East along sectarian lines. In Iran, the regional Shiite superpower, the Sunni embassy was ransacked and burned. The Saudi kingdom and a number of its Sunni allies have cut or downgraded diplomatic relations with Tehran. In a number of Sunni-majority states, members of the Shiite minority have taken to the streets to protest Nimr’s death.

    The events seem to be a worrying escalation of the sectarian rhetoric that has blighted the Muslim world in recent years and worsened conflicts in places like Syria, Iraq and Yemen. While it’d be wrong to lay all the blame at the religious schism that split the Sunni and the Shiite Muslims nearly 14 centuries ago, it’s hard to deny that the current divide reinforces a lot of other rivalries and disputes — and is perhaps even exploited by some to further other aims.

    Read more at http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0116/sunnis_shiites.php3#vMcuSY4d8bTRtr7l.99

  20. New Hillary Emails Reveal Propaganda, Executions, Coveting Libyan Oil and Gold

    […]a few of the truly explosive confirmations contained in the new emails: admissions of rebel war crimes, special ops trainers inside Libya from nearly the start of protests, Al Qaeda embedded in the U.S. backed opposition, Western nations jockeying for access to Libyan oil, the nefarious origins of the absurd Viagra mass rape claim, and concern over Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves threatening European currency.

    […]The Threat of Libya’s Oil and Gold to French Interests

    Though the French-proposed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 claimed the no-fly zone implemented over Libya was to protect civilians, an April 2011 email sent to Hillary with the subject line “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold” tells of less noble ambitions.

    The email identifies French President Nicholas Sarkozy as leading the attack on Libya with five specific purposes in mind: to obtain Libyan oil, ensure French influence in the region, increase Sarkozy’s reputation domestically, assert French military power, and to prevent Gaddafi’s influence in what is considered “Francophone Africa.”

    Most astounding is the lengthy section delineating the huge threat that Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves, estimated at “143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver,” posed to the French franc (CFA) circulating as a prime African currency. In place of the noble sounding “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine fed to the public, there is this “confidential” explanation of what was really driving the war [emphasis mine]:

    This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA).

    (Source Comment: According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.)

    http://levantreport.com/2016/01/04/new-hillary-emails-reveal-propaganda-executions-coveting-libyan-oil-and-gold/

  21. What a Natural Disaster Taught Me About the Second Amendment and Why It’s More Important Than Ever

    As Heard on Glenn Beck Radio: Ben Carson Gets Standing Ovation for Response to Muslim Voter at Town Hall
    Contribution
    What a Natural Disaster Taught Me About the Second Amendment and Why It’s More Important Than Ever
    Jan. 5, 2016 12:53pm
    Brad Schaeffer
    Brad Schaeffer

    Brad Schaeffer has led a dual career as a writer and commodities broker and was once a floor trader on exchanges in both Chicago and New York. His many articles have appeared in such respected mainstream newspapers as The Wall Street Journal and New York Daily News, as well as such widely read global content blogs as Zerohedge and Breitbart. He is also the author of the World War II novel “Hummel’s Cross” which appeared on Glenn Beck’s Recommended Reading List. Brad has also penned historical content for award-nominated Civil War apps. He has appeared on a variety of television outlets including Fox Business, CNBC and The Blaze TV. Brad’s eclectic body of commentary covers subjects as varied as world history, business, pop culture, the arts, rock music, politics, movies, sports and general musings about life. A Chicago native, and graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and children.

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    In the wake of President Barack Obama’s latest attempt to circumvent Congress and implement stricter gun controls through “executive action,” a broader discussion over the continued necessity of the Second Amendment is sure to follow.

    As a Midwest transplant, one of the first things I noticed after moving to my leafy New Jersey suburb was how few of my neighbors had ever even seen a real gun let alone held or fired one. Where I grew up, which at the time was a semi-rural outlier of Chicago, shooting guns was just part of who we were.

    I shot my dad’s M1 Carbine; several of my friends had small bore shotguns and even a few pistols. We all could aim straight and true. Never once was anyone even close to being injured. When you grow up with responsible gun ownership pounded into you by unforgiving teachers like my 1st U.S. Marine Division Korean War veteran father, you very quickly come to appreciate their deadly seriousness and treat them with proper respect.

    Several years ago I found myself pondering the meaning of the Second Amendment beyond the traditional argument that armed civilians are a check against the tyrannical inclinations of government. Rather, I considered its broader meaning through the prism of a regional catastrophe.

    From Oct. 29-31, 2012, Hurricane Sandy laid waste to much of New Jersey’s coastal region, flooding and washing away homes, ripping down power lines, paralyzing cable, internet, and telecom services, shuttering businesses, and halting food and gasoline shipments to some of most densely populated areas of the most densely populated state.

    http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/what-a-natural-disaster-taught-me-about-the-second-amendment-and-why-its-more-important-than-ever/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Firewire%20Morning%20Edition%20Recurring%20v2%202016-01-06&utm_term=Firewire_Morning_Test

      • They are a good outfit and one that gives the libs fits, the libs can’t believe that any Jew could support private firearms ownership. This is because the libs believe their own propaganda about Hitler supporting private gun ownership, in reality he thought only Nazi’s should have guns and those should be heavily limited.

  22. Associated Press NewsBreak: US sees Assad staying in Syria until March 2017

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration‘s best-case scenario for political transition in Syria does not foresee Bashar Assad stepping down as the country’s leader before March 2017, outlasting Barack Obama’s presidency by at least two months, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

    An internal timeline prepared for U.S. officials dealing with the Syria crisis sets an unspecified date in March 2017 for Assad to “relinquish” his position as president and for his “inner circle” to depart. That would be more than five years after Obama first called for Assad to leave.

    The State Department said Wednesday the timeline was prepared late last year as a guide for Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. diplomats working on a political transition for Syria.

    Spokesman John Kirby described the document as a “staff-level think piece” that is “preliminary and pre-decisional” and not “an official position.” He also said it is “not an accurate projection of plans by the international community to effect a political transition in Syria.”

    However, many of the milestones mentioned in the document comport with the basics of the U.N.-endorsed plan and other officials said they were an accurate reflection of the administration’s thinking. One official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private document, said the goal for Assad to leave in March 2017 might slip even further.

    According to the timeline, Syria would hold elections for a new president and parliament in August 2017 — some 19 months from now. In the interim, Syria would be run by a transitional governing body.

    Countless hurdles lie ahead for implementation of this latest blueprint for ending five years of conflict that has killed more than a quarter-million people, created the worst European refugee crisis since World War II and allowed the Islamic State group to carve out a would-be caliphate across parts of Iraq and Syria.

    Not the least of those hurdles is the growing rift between Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Shiite-ruled Iran, which back opposite sides in the Syria conflict and had to be lobbied heavily to agree to meet in Vienna to craft a way forward for the war-torn country. Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric and then severed diplomatic relations with Iran this week after its embassy in Tehran was stormed by a mob protesting the death.

    It is not yet clear what impact those developments might have on the Syria negotiations.

    If Saudi-Iranian tensions can be overcome, if peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition go ahead later this month as planned and if they are successful, the biggest challenge to the U.S. timeline is still that no one else [ except the MB ] has yet agreed to its specifics, particularly those related to Assad’s departure.

    Assad has steadfastly refused to step down while his nation’s terrorist threat, as he sees it, persists. The timeline offers no explanation for exactly how Assad would leave or what his post-presidential future might hold.

    And his chief backers, Russia and Iran, have resisted all efforts by outside powers to determine Syria’s future leadership, insisting that is a decision for the Syrian people. Russia and Iran may object to the U.S. timeline’s call for Assad to leave six months before elections would be held.

    In addition, the Syrian opposition wants Assad out as soon as possible. The opposition along with U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey could view the American concept as a betrayal.

    The United States is balancing numerous considerations as it seeks to quell Syria’s violence and advance several strategic objectives. Its top priority now is rooting out the Islamic State from its headquarters in northern Syria.

    Still, Obama and other U.S. officials promised for years to end the Assad family’s 45-year-grip on Syria, arguing that a leader who uses barrel bombs and poison gas on his own people has lost legitimacy. Ridding Syria of Assad could also strip Iran of its foothold in the heart of the Arab world and dramatically change the security equation for neighbors such as Israel, Lebanon and Turkey.

    In recent months, Washington and its allies in European capitals have retreated from demands that Assad leave power immediately as the Islamic State gained territory in the region and the priority shifted to defeating the militant group.

    The timeline, however aspirational, shows how U.S. diplomats and policymakers are determined to outline an exit plan for Assad and not let concerns over the Islamic State and other extremist groups allow him to cling to power indefinitely.

    The document obtained by the AP starts Syria’s new political process next month. An 18-month transition period would be initiated, consistent with the plan endorsed by the U.N. Security Council last month. The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has set a Jan. 25 date for government-opposition peace talks to begin in Geneva.

    The U.S. timeline envisions the Security Council signing off on a framework for negotiations between Assad’s representatives and the opposition, leading to the formation of a security committee in April. That would be accompanied by an amnesty for some government and military members, and moderate opposition leaders and fighters. The transitional governing body would then be created.

    In May, the Syrian parliament would dissolve, according to the timeline. The Security Council would recognize the new transitional authority and lay out the transition’s next steps. These include major political reforms, the nomination of an interim legislature and an international donors’ conference to fund Syria’s transition and reconstruction.

    The next six months, through November 2016 — when Obama’s successor is elected — would be devoted to the sides drafting a new constitution. The Syrian people would get a chance to vote on that document in a popular referendum in January 2017, according to the timeline.

    Only then would the process lead to what Washington calls the root cause of the entire conflict and the growing extremist threat across the Middle East and beyond: the end of Assad’s rule of Syria.

    In March 2017, the timeline reads: “Asad relinquishes presidency; inner circle departs.” (The document uses the U.S. government’s preferred spelling of Assad.)

    Syria’s new government would assume full powers from the transitional body after the parliamentary and presidential elections in August.

    http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:7e7e7d7bbebf460dafc2ec8e997a2271

  23. L I B Y A – Fires sparked by ISIL attacks spread at Libya oil ports

    Five oil storage tanks remain on fire after ISIL shelled security forces guarding country’s largest oil ports.

    Fires caused by clashes between fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and security forces at Libya’s biggest oil ports have spread to five oil storage tanks that were still burning on Wednesday.

    At least nine troops were killed and more than 40 wounded in fighting around the perimeter of the area on Monday and Tuesday, said Ali al-Hassi, a spokesman for the security forces.

    Guards recovered bodies of 30 ISIL combatants, and also captured two tanks and other vehicles from the armed group, he said.

    Four of the fires were at the port in Es Sider and one at Ras Lanuf. Two blazes were triggered by shelling from ISIL and the fire spread to three more.

    Hassi said the Petroleum Facilities Guards were still in control of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports but clashes continued.

    Mohamed al-Manfi, an oil official in eastern Libya, said each of the oil tanks was estimated to contain 420,000 to 460,000 barrels of oil.

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/fires-sparked-isil-attacks-spread-libya-oil-ports-160106153753042.html

  24. Germany: Antifa heckle far-right Pro NRW at demo over NYE sexual assaults

    Around 200 antifa protesters faced off with members of the far-right Pro NRW group in Cologne, Wednesday, during their rally against the recent reports of sexual assault cases that took place on New Year’s Eve in the western German city.

    Pro NRW members had gathered to protest against the recent influx of refugees in Germany, which they claim was the reason for the alleged mass sexual assaults on the 31st. Antifa protesters chanted phrases including “refugees welcome” while protesting against sexism.

  25. President Erdogan and the Turkish Reich
    Two-faced Turkey shows its true colors.

    Turkey’s President Erdogan has referred to Hitler’s Germany as a model for a new presidential system, but this should come as no surprise.

    Totalitarian leaders of the 20th century were known variously as Der Führer (Germany), Il Duce (Italy), Generalissimo (Spain) and El Maximo Lider (Cuba) and now neo-Ottoman Turkey has its Reis (leader), Recep Tayyip Erdogan. There will even be a Turkish film about Erdogan with the same title.

    After the defeat of Ottoman Turkey in the First World War, Turkish general Mustafa Kemal and his fellow nationalists laid the foundations of a modern, secular republic in 1923, but this process has gradually been reversed since Erdogan and his AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power in 2002.

    The AKP came to power with the promise of clean governance but before long it was business as usual with an amnesty to cover tax fraud and an amended public procurement law to render state tenders opaque.

    The AK party set out to redress the imbalance created by Atatürk’s reforms and restore the role of religion in public life. Both the preamble and Article 24 of Turkey’s secular constitution stipulate that no one shall be allowed to exploit religion for the purpose of personal or political influence, but nevertheless this is what they have done.

    Four years ago Erdogan stated that it was the AK party’s aim to raise a religious generation, and this is what they are well on their way to doing. There has been an explosive increase in the budget allocated to the Religious Affairs Directorate and in the number of Koran courses. Religious high schools (imam-hatip schools) also play a major role in the AKP’s plans to transform Turkish society.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261344/president-erdogan-and-turkish-reich-robert-ellis

  26. Protest outside the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington

    WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 05: Demonstrators gather outside the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to protest the recent executions of 47 prisoners, including Sheik Nimr al-Nimr, in Washington on January 05, 2015.

  27. Tommy Robinson: Pegida UK figurehead ‘to be charged with assault’ days after launch of anti-Islam group

    Tommy Robinson says he expects to be charged with common assault in the coming days after claiming to have been told by officers he had to present himself at Luton Police Station. The former leader of the far-right English Defence League (EDL) – who launched the UK branch of European anti-Islam protest group Pegida just days ago – was arrested in August on suspicion of attacking a fellow prison inmate, but had originally been told no further action would be taken.

    The alleged assault occurred while Robinson was serving his last days in prison for a 2014 conviction of mortgage fraud. He says he acted in “self-defence” after Muslim inmates at Peterborough prison allegedly attacked him with a cup of boiling water containing sugar.

    Robinson, 33, revealed to IBTimes UK: “The police told my solicitors I was going to be charged with battery. I was told this allegation was dropped and then two days after the Pegida UK press conference they say I’m going to be charged.

    “Whatever this is all about, it’s a complete fabrication. It’s all to do with that press conference. The amount of stupid things they’ve arrested me for in the past, it’s ridiculous.”

    […]It comes just two days after Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – held a press conference to relaunch Pegida UK under its new leader Paul Weston at a pub in Toddington, Bedfordshire. The event on Monday saw the pair attack Islam as a “fascist ideology” and promote a Pegida UK anti-immigration rally due to take place in Birmingham on 6 February. Robinson had previously described the city as the “terrorist epicentre” of Britain.

    A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police said it was against policy to confirm whether an individual was due to be charged, instead saying: “A 33-year-old man from Wilstead was arrested on suspicion of common assault in August, and is due to return on bail to Luton Police Station on 12 January.”

    Robinson left the EDL in 2013 but last month announced he would be setting up the UK wing of Pegida, a controversial anti-immigration group that has grown in popularity in northern Europe.

    He confirmed he intends to hand himself in to police.

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tommy-robinson-pegida-uk-figurehead-be-charged-assault-days-after-launch-anti-islam-group-1536415

  28. Germany: Scuffles break out as protesters try to blockade AfD conference

    Around 300 protesters attempted to block the entrance to an Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD; Alternative for Germany) Epiphany conference meeting, in Stuttgart on Wednesday. Minor scuffles broke out between police officers and activists outside the venue, leading to several arrests.

  29. TURKEY – Snow falls off mosque roof severely injuring people in Turkey

    Two people were severely injured in the Turkish town of Rize, after a snow drift built up on top of a roof of a mosque fell upon several pedestrians.

  30. Migrant crisis: Turkey police seize fake life jackets (BBC, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35241813

    “Police in Turkey say they have confiscated more than 1,000 fake life jackets made for migrants wanting to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece.

    Officers raided a workshop in the port of Izmir, where they say they found life jackets stuffed with packaging rather than buoyancy aids.

    The four workers making the jackets included two young Syrian girls.

    On Tuesday, the bodies of 34 migrants were found along Turkey’s coast. Many were wearing life jackets.

    Several children were among the dead…”

  31. Syria conflict: ‘Dire situation’ in besieged villages (BBC, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35241396

    “The situation in three besieged villages in Syria is “extremely dire”, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned.

    Activists say civilians have died because of a lack of food and medicine in rebel-controlled Madaya, near Damascus, or died trying to escape.

    People are also reported to be eating grass to survive in the government-held Foah and Kefraya, in the north-west.

    The ICRC said it hoped to get aid to all three villages in the coming days.

    The UN says all parties to the four-year conflict in Syria have used siege warfare, in clear breach of international human rights and humanitarian laws.

    An estimated 393,700 people were living under siege as of late October…”

  32. MoI: 19 Taliban insurgents killed in counter-terrorism operations (khaama, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/moi-19-taliban-insurgents-killed-in-counter-terrorism-operations-1929

    “At least 19 Taliban militants were killed and 2 others were injured during military operations by Afghan national security forces in the past 24 hours.

    The operations were jointly conducted by Afghan national police, Afghan national army and Afghan intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) operatives.

    Interior ministry following a statement said Wednesday that the militants were killed or injured in Laghman, Kandahar, Paktia, Herat, Helmand, Ghazni and Paktika provinces.

    The statement further added that another Taliban militant was also arrested during the operations.

    Afghan security forces confiscated various types of light and heavy weapons along with explosives during the operations, interior ministry said.

    The statement by interior ministry also added that the operations still continue in different parts of the country, including Deh Yak district of Ghazni province.

    The Afghan national security forces have stepped up counter-terrorism operations across the country as the Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant during the recent weeks.

    The Taliban militants have carried out numerous attacks across the country including capital Kabul during the recent days besides efforts have been put in place to end the decade-long insurgency by the Taliban through reconciliation process.”

  33. 31 militants killed in Taliban-Daesh clashes in Nangarhar (khaama, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/31-militants-killed-in-taliban-daesh-clashes-in-nangarhar-4468

    “31 militants have been killed in fresh clashes between Taliban and Daesh groups in eastern Nangarhar province.

    Spokesperson for the governor of Nangarhar said the clashes took place in Bati Kot and Achin districts.

    Atuallah Khogyani added that the gun battle that erupted in Doyam Farm area of Bati Kot District on Wednesday morning left 18 members of Daesh group killed and four others wounded.

    He said those killed include two commanders of the group by the name Ajmal and Abdul Ahad.

    The governor’s spokesperson further said that the second clash erupted in Achin District leaving five fighters of Taliban killed and four wounded.

    It also left eight members of Daesh killed, Khogyani add.

    This comes a day after 15 fighters of Daesh were killed in a clash with security forces in Saluram Farm area Bati Kot District.

    The group planned to attack a security post but security forces raided them before they could launch their attack.

    Nangarhar has turned into a hotspot of the group where it is trying to establish a regional command.”

    • ISIS not a significant force in Afghanistan, CEO Abdullah says (khaama, Jan 6, 2016)
      http://www.khaama.com/isis-not-a-significant-force-in-afghanistan-ceo-abdullah-says-1931

      “Amid concerns that the loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group are gaining foothold in Afghanistan, the Chief Executive Officer, Abdullah Abdullah has said the presence of the loyalists of the terror is not a significant force.

      Admitting that the terror group poses threats not only to Afghanistan but the entire region, CEO Abdullah said the Afghanistan is determined to deal with the terror group loyalists as the Afghan government continues to work with its international allies to deal with the security challenges.

      CEO Abdullah is currently on a state visit to Iran to discuss issues of bilateral interest between Kabul and Tehran.

      Meanwhile, Abdullah said the loyalists of ISIS terror group in Afghanistan have good resources. “There is no doubt that they [Daesh terrorists] have good resources,” Abdullah told Press TV during an interview.

      “It [Daesh] is a threat. It is a threat for Afghanistan. It is a threat for region. It is a threat for global peace and Afghanistan is determined to deal with it and at the same time it is not as significant force in Afghanistan as Taliban,” he added.

      The remarks by Abdullah comes as the loyalists of the terror group have recently stepped up insurgency activities and anti-government propaganda as they continue to expand foothold in the country.

      The terror group also launched an FM radio late last year in eastern Nangarhar province and later issued a propaganda video which purportedly shows the cruel terrorist activities of the terror group in Afghanistan.

      The US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter also warned regarding the emergent threat of the terror group during a surprise visit to Afghanistan late in December last year, however he said the threat posed by the terror group is being tracked very closely as they have started creating ‘little nests’ in Afghanistan.

      Meanwhile, the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan Gen. John Campbell earlier said the loyalists of the terror group are attempting to establish a regional base in Jalalabad, the capital city of eastern Nangarhar province.

      In an interview with The Associated Press, the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, said Tuesday that foreign militants from Syria and Iraq had joined the loyalists of the terror group in eastern Nangarhar province and are trying to consolidate links with the leadership of the terror group based in Syria and Iraq.”

  34. Convictions unlikely in Cologne NYE incidents (DW, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/convictions-unlikely-in-cologne-nye-incidents/a-18963856

    “It’s not very likely that any of the men who harassed dozens of women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve will be convicted, says Cologne-based criminal lawyer Nikolaos Gazeas.

    DW: Identifying the men who may have participated in the sexual assaults, harassment and thefts in Cologne on New Year’s Eve is proving to be a problem. If you don’t know who they are, the chances of arresting them are almost nil, right?

    Nikolaos Gazeas: That’s true. The chances of convicting even one of the perpetrators are slight.
    All the same, what is needed in order to take penal action in these cases of massive sexual assault, even including theft in many cases?

    You don’t need a lot to initiate preliminary proceedings: a so-called initial suspicion is enough, which means that there must be enough real evidence pointing at a crime. For instance, the prosecutor’s office and the police would probably make the assumption if it’s clear that one of the people in question was at the crime scene that night.

    But what is needed to find someone guilty and convict them is a totally different matter. You have to prove a perpetrator’s personal guilt. That’s problematic in the case of crimes committed from within groups, and it’s particularly problematic in the case of New Year’s Eve because everything was so chaotic at Cologne’s main train station…”

  35. German cabinet approves more troops for Mali (DW, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/german-cabinet-approves-more-troops-for-mali/a-18963872

    “The German cabinet has approved the first-ever deployment of Bundeswehr soldiers to Mali’s unstable north. The German army is also expanding its training mission for Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq.

    There are currently just 10 German soldiers participating in the UN’s MINUSMA mission in Mali. They are based at mission headquarters in the capital, Bamako. But as many as 650 German troops are expected to be deployed to the unstable northern part of the West African country.

    MINUSMA is considered to be the UN’s most dangerous peacekeeping mission. The German soldiers will be stationed in Gao, northeastern Mali, where soldiers from the Netherlands are operating a base camp. In the spring of 2012, Islamist fighters and Tuareg rebels occupied the city on the Niger river, which separates the desert northern region from the rest of the country.

    They made Gao the capital of their “state,” until they were driven out by French and Malian forces in January, 2013. A few weeks later, the UN sent 10,000 armed peacekeepers to Mali to stabilize the country – the beginning of the MINUSMA operation.

    The German army’s main task will be to investigate and relay an accurate picture of the situation, based on patrols and the use of small drones. Mission command says the goal is to monitor the peace agreement made between the government of Mali and rebel groups last July.

    The troops will not be going on the offensive to engage the rebels; that role is being carried out by former colonial power, France…”

  36. Frenchman returning from Syria warned of attack at rock concert (france24, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.france24.com/en/20160106-france-paris-attacks-syria-warned-rock-concert-target-bataclan

    “Months before the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, which included a siege at the Bataclan venue, a Parisian who had returned from Syria told French intelligence that the Islamic State group was planning to attack a rock concert, according to French media.

    In the summer of 2015, in an interrogation room in the offices of the French intelligence services, a young computer technician from Paris was recounting his meeting with a notorious Belgian jihadist in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

    The young Frenchman – identified as Reda H. – had just returned from Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, where he met a Belgian national who was already well known to French counterterrorism officials.

    “He asked me if I was interested in going abroad,” Reda told his interrogators. “He said, for example, ‘Imagine a rock concert in a European country. If you were armed, would you be ready to shoot into the crowd?’”

    The Parisian-born and -raised computer technician demurred. Or at least that’s what Reda told his interrogators at the DGSE (Directorate-General for External Security) offices. “I told him I wanted to fight the soldiers of [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad.”

    The Belgian who met Reda in Raqqa was none other than Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who would grab international headlines months later for organising the November 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

    A lengthy account of that confession – made on August 13, 2015, and published Wednesday in the French daily Le Monde – provides disturbing details of IS group recruitment channels, as well as an insight into the surfeit of intelligence being gathered by European security services…”

  37. REVEALED: 164 asylum seekers per DAY – Britain takes in record number of refugees (express, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/632218/asylum-record-October-migrants-refugees

    “BRITAIN took in more 164 asylum seekers PER DAY during one month last year – making it the most since modern records began.

    Some 5,095 people applied for asylum in October 2015, according to official European Union (EU) figures.

    This is the highest total for a month since current records began in January 2009.

    There was a dramatic jump in claims last year as the international migration crisis escalated.

    The number of people applying for asylum in Britain in October was 84 per cent higher than the 2,770 registered nine months earlier in January. It was also a rise of a quarter compared with the previous month.

    Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said: “These statistics are another nail in the Government’s commitment to reduce migration to the tens of thousands.

    “It is important that we know where these applications are coming from, and that the Government develops a coherent, defensible and transparent policy in processing asylum requests.”

    The Government does not publish monthly asylum data, instead using quarterly figures.

    These have also revealed a sharp rise in claims, with the number of people applying for asylum reaching its highest level for 12 years between July and September.

    However, if people do not need our protection they are expected to leave the UK and we may remove them if they do not go voluntarily.”…”

  38. ‘Syrian refugees’ trying to board flight to UK arrested on suspicion of terrorism (express, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/632274/Europe-refugee-crisis-Syrian-refugees-try-to-board-UK-flight-terrorism-arrest

    “Fears the pair, who claimed to be Syrian refugees, were linked to jihadis were raised after anti-terrorism officers found images of violence and war on their smartphones.

    The pair, understood to be brother and sister, were arrested at Cristoforo Colombo Airport in Genoa, Italy, while trying to board a plane for London.

    The 31-year-old man and 24-year-old woman were promptly arrested after police found their travel documents were forged.

    The unnamed pair claimed to be refugees from Syria during a police interview – but have constantly changed their story after being held in custody and interrogated in court, a police spokesman said.

    They hastily changed their story to say they were originally from Iran and had come to Europe to convert to Christianity.

    The pair then struggled to recall how they ended up in Genoa and claimed they had been staying in a hotel – but could not remember what it was called or where it was.

    Their identities are yet to have been confirmed.

    They claim they entered Europe among refugees arriving from Turkey to Greek shores.

    Police said the pair are being held in custody while they try to determine their true identities and how they entered the country.

    In a separate incident two brothers set to board a flight to London were arrested at the Ligurian port of Genoa’s airport on New Year’s Eve on suspicion of belonging to an international terror group.

    The men also used fake Belgian passports and had photos of weapons and war scenes on their mobile phones.

    Three Libyans were also arrested upon arrival at the port of Genoa on suspicion of laundering money for international terrorism.

    The three men were arrested by officers from Italy’s anti terror squad on Sunday night after arriving in a car ferry from Tunisia.

    The group were travelling without luggage in three identical Hyundai cars, and images of weapons and war scenes were allegedly found on their mobile phones….”

  39. GCSE and A-level exams to be sat early so Muslim pupils avoid taking key subjects while fasting for Ramadan (dailymail, Jan 6, 2016)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3387163/GCSE-levels-set-rejigged-summer-Islam-s-holy-month-Ramadan-account.html

    “GCSE and A-levels could be rejigged this summer to ensure young Muslim students can observe Ramadan without it affecting their results.

    Subjects such as GCSE English and maths could be timetabled right at the start of exams season to ensure they are over before the start of Islam’s holy month in June.

    Ramadan, which Muslims observe by fasting during daylight hours, has been gradually moving into the summer exams season in England and this year crosses over with almost the entire period…”

    • Yucki, if you are a Windows user, I can only offer 1 word of advice.

      Defenestration

      You know, except sort of in reverse.

    • If you are using a modern Windows system turn off the computer and when you turn it back on hit Alt-F10, this will get you into a program that will let you refresh you operating system with out losing your data or to reset to factory settings and lose your data.

  40. Turkey to regulate Friday work hours according to prayer time, prime minister says

    The government has been working on a draft bill that will enable public employees to observe the Friday prayer without any interruption at work, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday.

    “We have prepared a bill that would prevent office hours from affecting our freedom of worship without creating a loss in working hours,” Davutoglu said during a group meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

    On the eve of collective bargaining negotiations last summer, the Civil Servants’ Trade Union (Memur-Sen) asked the government to extend Friday lunch breaks at public institutions to two hours.

    The Friday prayer is a weekly duty for Muslims that lasts some 45 minutes, requiring Muslim men to gather in a mosque. According to the current regulations, lunch break at public institutions is fixed between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., or between 12:30 p.m. and 13:30 p.m., as the Friday prayer starts at 12 p.m. in winter months and at 1 p.m. in the summer season.

    http://www.todayszaman.com/business_turkey-to-regulate-friday-work-hours-according-to-prayer-time-prime-minister-says_408831.html